Alexandria’s Comprehensive Transportation Policy and Program is on schedule for completion and presentation to City Council by the end of this year or early next year.
Transportation and Environmental Services director, Richard S. Baier, presented the concept to City Council back in March, 2001. Over the years, the city has conducted numerous transportation studies and undertaken a variety of transportation activities. Most of these, however, have involved specific projects targeting a specific area of the city rather than being a part of an overall transportation plan.
The development of the CTPP was divided into four phases. Phase I involved the collection of data to assess the condition of the arterials and primary collectors in the city. Phase II, the current phase, takes the data that was collected and brings a number of topics to public meetings for discussion.
Other phases are scheduled in the future, as early as September.
“We completed Phase I in early fall of last year and have held three public meetings since then,” said Tom Culpepper, the deputy director of T & E S. “We want to get a clear understanding of what the community’s expectations are as far as transportation — what they see as their travel needs and what is working so far.”
Feedback from these meetings has been gathered through comment sheets. The first meeting was a broad overview of transportation and traffic in the city. The second meeting was held to discuss bicycle trails and pedestrian safety. Transit use was the topic of discussion at the third meeting and the next meeting will center on the city’s arterial street system.
“In our discussion about bike and pedestrian improvements, we gave people a fixed budget and asked them to divide it into specific categories,” Culpepper said.
THE RESULTS WERE compelling. “According to those present at these meetings, 62 percent of the budget would be spent on infrastructure improvements,” Culpepper said. “We are getting a clear sense from the community that we need more extensive sidewalk connections, other improved amenities for sidewalks and better interconnected bike routes.”
An additional 30 percent of the budget, according to those in attendance at the public meetings, would go to safety improvements. “This included either physical or operational improvements that would improve safety when crossing the street,” Culpepper said.
Citizens would only allocate about 10 percent of the budget they were given to programs that would encourage bike or foot travel. “Those who commented saw the need for this type of education as a relatively low priority,” Culpepper said.
The need for infrastructure improvements was not surprising. “We are working closely with the department of parks and recreation on connecting the bike trails and have gotten some funds from the state and federal governments to improve pedestrian walkways,” Culpepper said. “It’s a start but we know that more needs to be done.”
THE CITY continues to make a sizable investment in transit. In FY 2004, Alexandria will spend $30 million on DASH and its Washington Metro Area Transportation Authority contribution. The majority of this money, $20 million, goes to WMATA — $17.2 million for operation and $3.25 for capital improvements. The platform extension at Commonwealth and Cameron and the Duke Street Concourse after users exit the north side into the station, will be funded by the city.
The city does need to spend more funds on encouraging the use of mass transit and funds on improving DASH routes. Also, there is the issue of building a new DASH bus facility. “The only way that we are going to begin to address the issue of traffic and transportation in the city is to encourage more use of mass transit,” said Mayor William D. Euille.
Expansion of DASH routes, which would facilitate more use of mass transit, however, is problematic. “Right now, we can just keep up with our current maintenance and operation needs,” Culpepper said. “We need to identify funds for a new DASH facility and even more funds to purchase new equipment if we want to expand the routes. The city did invest $5 million to purchase property for a new DASH facility, but the $25 million to construct it has not yet been identified.”
THE MEETING on the arterials will be held in September. However, in the first overview meeting, citizens had some comments about what they see as the biggest problems here. The two biggest issues were felt to be congestion and delay on the arterials.
“I expect when we meet with the community in September, there will be thoughtful feedback as to how the city might go about trying to reduce that congestion or better mange it,” Culpepper said. “Realistically, our arterial system is pretty well developed but we must find a way to address the overall congestion issue. Either you reduce demand or you increase the efficiency of the system. What is the balance that the community is looking for there?”
That balance may be hard to find. During the analysis of data, staff found that there is a high percentage of Alexandrians who commute outside the city to work. Also, the percentage of Alexandrians who use transit has dropped by 1.5 percent over the past decade. There are also more people traveling in single-occupancy vehicles.
“These trends are going in the wrong direction,” Culpepper said. “We are realizing that our traffic problems are not totally externally driven.”
Once the CTPP goes to Council early next year, there will be another period of discussion, review and public input. “We have been reaching out to the community to discuss these matters all along,” Baier said. “However, we understand that many people won’t participate until there is some specific project that involves them or their neighborhood directly. We have been pleased at the turnout so far, but hope that more people will get involved.”
BAIER RECOGNIZES that there are political realities to such a comprehensive policy and program. “The policy and then the plan for implementing that policy should reflect the wishes of the entire community,” he said. “We understand, however, that these policies, even after they have been adopted, will provide guidance. What we hope is that, when exceptions are made to these policies, there will be a thorough discussion of the reasons for those exceptions and a recognition that they are indeed exceptions.”
Baier hopes that City Council will adopt a comprehensive transportation policy and program by the fall of 2004.